Lift international traffic restriction. They do not work. They only contribute to the economic and social stress of people, businesses and nations.
By cutting the lifeline of tourism, these restrictions do more harm than good, especially in destinations reliant on international tourists for jobs, economic wellbeing and sustainable change, says UNWTO – the United Nations World Tourism Organisation. UNWTO also notes, that in both developed and developing countries, recovery from the impacts of the pandemic is uneven and fragile and overall has led to a substantial reversal in progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
“It is imperative we restart tourism and so kickstart recovery and get back on track towards meeting the SDGs while responding to Climate Imperatives,” the UNWTO statement says
ScandAsia would like to join WHO and The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) in their appeal for countries around the world to realize the ineffectiveness of blanket travel restrictions. We would also like to echo their recommendations against using vaccination status as the sole condition for welcoming tourists back.
The vaccines do not eliminate the risk of transmitting the COVID-19, they only continue to be effective in reducing the risk of severe disease and death. That is of course excellent but irrelevant to the issue of restricting traveling.
Unfortunately, even though WHO has made such a call, a large share of EU/Schengen Area countries have already announced that they will shorten the validity of vaccination passes starting from February 1. This means that they don’t plan on lifting the requirement to present a vaccination certificate anytime soon.
But Asia doesn’t have to follow the EU. Why not show the way?
As long as these restrictions are in place, they will be exploited to fleece the unfortunate traveler who falls into the Covid-19 trap.
